Neal Brennan: Its hard not to be defensive... I find it hard not to be defensive. I feel like I'm very predisposed to being written off. Meaning, I'm sensitive to it. Because I started in comedy as a doorman.
Ari Shaffir: Yeah, me too.
NB: Literally as a doorman at the Boston Comedy Club 20 years ago or 19 years ago. So there's a legion of guys... Maron, Jeff Ross, Greg Fitzsimmons...
AS: (Joey) Diaz told me that. Any city you start in... you will never be respected in that city.
NB: Yeah.
AS: They'll always see you as an open miker.
NB: So I'm still a door guy. I've heard Jeff say when I was on stage, "How did he do this?" I was killing one night and he said, "How did he do this?" Like how did this happen? They mistake being quiet with being unfunny. Its like, no, I'm just quiet. So I'm predisposed that when people are like, "Yeah, I didn't know you did movies." I want to take their fuckin'... I want to bring them to set. And show them what the job is. Oh yeah, I can do fuckin' movies. I'm in charge of a hundred people. And they're all looking to me to figure out what to... but that's my own defenses. It's the Joe Pesci 'Go get your shine box' thing.
AS: I feel like that when I do comedy sometimes. Let's say its my parent's friends. Like, "Oh, you do comedy? Here something you should do." I'm like, hey listen, this is actually something I've done for over a decade.
Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank #32: Hollywood Director / aprox 00:23:00
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Showing posts with label Ari Shaffir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ari Shaffir. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank #32: Hollywood Director
Neal Brennan: I don't know if I've ever explained the entire process of a movie. So I did... I created the Chappelle Show with Dave (Chappelle) and basically its like being a good high school basketball player. You just get recruited by...
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Neal Brennan: So when you do a good thing on TV or you make a short you get on these approved lists.
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Neal Brennan: So when you do a good thing on TV or you make a short you get on these approved lists.
Ari Shaffir: If you as a screenwriter…
NB: Generally its as a director. There’s a whole ‘nother
screenwriting list. That’s a whole ‘nother list.
AS: Did you write ‘The Goods’?
NB: No. I was on the list during ‘Half Baked’ and subsequent
years. I’m probably still on some list. I’m just so far down. ‘Cause you have
to renew it every year. You have to write a good script every year and a half
and I just haven’t written…
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NB: So they send me… They’ve sent me every comedy script for
the last 7 years. Every ‘You, Me & Dupree’, the ice skating movie (Blades
of Glory), ‘The Brothers Solomon’, fuckin’ ‘Horrible Bosses’. Literally, "Would
you be interested in directing this?"
AS: Superbad…
NB: Superbad they sent me. I just never read it.
AS: Who directed the ice skating movie?
NB: They guys who directed the Geico commercials with the
caveman.
AS: Wow.
NB: They were hot from that. So then they got… the ice
skating movie I was up for. They really wanted me for that.
AS: So they just gauge your interest and then ‘we’ll talk’?
NB: Yeah, but when we talk… I’m pitching.
AS: You’re pitching yourself?
NB: Yeah. As how I would… what I would make the movie look
like.
AS: Who do you talk to?
NB: You talk to the studio head and the producer.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Sex, Drugs, and Seminary
Mike Moody: What is it about standup?
Ari Shaffir: I don’t know, I just like it. I don’t know. I could try to be a poetic person, but it’s just the feeling. It’s a good feeling I get when I do it. It just makes me happy. Whatever gives you fulfillment, this is my thing that gives me fulfillment. For some people it’s building race cars or whatever it is. I just like doing it. So I’m always sort of surprised that I get paid at the end of week. Well, not surprised, but it’s like, “Hey, that’s nice,” because I would do it for free.
MM: Your comedy is pretty dark and personal. Tell me about the moment or the time when you found your voice on stage and you could just be yourself.
AS: I don’t know. It’s like you get closer and closer to it as you go. It’s like you get it in moments, and then you get it in more moments, and then you sort of become yourself and just not give a fuck about what anybody else thinks. It’s like you almost completely stop pandering to everyone and you are completely yourself. Probably in the last couple of years I feel I’ve just sort of been saying the things I want to say the way I want to say them. They talk about “finding your voice,” and it’s like I never really understood what that meant. I think it just means talking the way you would to your friends. Once you start getting like that on stage and making jokes, it’s more rewarding.
Sex, Drugs, and Seminary: An Interview with Amazing Racist and Comedian Ari Shaffir / Mike Moody / April 23, 2012
Ari Shaffir: I don’t know, I just like it. I don’t know. I could try to be a poetic person, but it’s just the feeling. It’s a good feeling I get when I do it. It just makes me happy. Whatever gives you fulfillment, this is my thing that gives me fulfillment. For some people it’s building race cars or whatever it is. I just like doing it. So I’m always sort of surprised that I get paid at the end of week. Well, not surprised, but it’s like, “Hey, that’s nice,” because I would do it for free.
MM: Your comedy is pretty dark and personal. Tell me about the moment or the time when you found your voice on stage and you could just be yourself.
AS: I don’t know. It’s like you get closer and closer to it as you go. It’s like you get it in moments, and then you get it in more moments, and then you sort of become yourself and just not give a fuck about what anybody else thinks. It’s like you almost completely stop pandering to everyone and you are completely yourself. Probably in the last couple of years I feel I’ve just sort of been saying the things I want to say the way I want to say them. They talk about “finding your voice,” and it’s like I never really understood what that meant. I think it just means talking the way you would to your friends. Once you start getting like that on stage and making jokes, it’s more rewarding.
Sex, Drugs, and Seminary: An Interview with Amazing Racist and Comedian Ari Shaffir / Mike Moody / April 23, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank #35: The Jew, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (Moshe Kasher)
Ari Shaffir: I used to think about (Mitch) Hedberg and stuff… why didn’t anyone get him help? Because everyone was doing drugs. They’re like, we’re all doing it…
Moshe Kasher: And its helping Hedberg look cool. Its bad. That’s the bad nature of this beast.
AS: Somebody, that same year in Montreal, somebody they know from here was in the film part and they saw some older, not older older, but like a little older, respected stand up comic and a bunch of people doing coke with him in a bathroom. And just saying, ick, all these comics are trying to do coke with this guy. And he was just like, “Blech.” And just turned around and left.
MK: Yeah, that’s funny, “Dude, I did coke with this guy! Whoa!”
AS: Way to go man, you did it!
MK: Congrats. I see, I don’t know if you see this, with younger comics. I’ve seen this sort of, this thing where they’re trying to become like desperate alcoholics.
AS: Oh yeah, because its cool.
MK: On stage.
AS: Its like, “I want to be Bukowski.” But you’re not one.
MK: They want to affect the kind of…
AS: They’re bragging about pain they don’t have.
MK: The nihilistic blight relationship with society that like Stanhope or Kyle Kinane have.
AS: But they don’t really have it. They’re just sort of trying…
MK: But they will!
AS: Hopefully, if they keep going.
MK: They probably won’t be as funny as Doug and Kyle but they’ll get there. I mean, you can get there. You know, and the other thing is, by the way, Kyle and Stanhope are very successful because they work super hard. It’s a flawed concept. But I just hate when I see some like 24 year old comic like, “I mostly just drink, man, because life fucks…” Get out of here.
AS: You’re just drinking because you’re a fuck up. Or because you’re a frat guy.
MK: You’re angst is fake and you’re alcoholism is fake but soon neither will be fake but you’re career will be non-existent.
AS: Soon you’ll need 5 beers before you get on stage.
Moshe Kasher: And its helping Hedberg look cool. Its bad. That’s the bad nature of this beast.
AS: Somebody, that same year in Montreal, somebody they know from here was in the film part and they saw some older, not older older, but like a little older, respected stand up comic and a bunch of people doing coke with him in a bathroom. And just saying, ick, all these comics are trying to do coke with this guy. And he was just like, “Blech.” And just turned around and left.
MK: Yeah, that’s funny, “Dude, I did coke with this guy! Whoa!”
AS: Way to go man, you did it!
MK: Congrats. I see, I don’t know if you see this, with younger comics. I’ve seen this sort of, this thing where they’re trying to become like desperate alcoholics.
AS: Oh yeah, because its cool.
MK: On stage.
AS: Its like, “I want to be Bukowski.” But you’re not one.
MK: They want to affect the kind of…
AS: They’re bragging about pain they don’t have.
MK: The nihilistic blight relationship with society that like Stanhope or Kyle Kinane have.
AS: But they don’t really have it. They’re just sort of trying…
MK: But they will!
AS: Hopefully, if they keep going.
MK: They probably won’t be as funny as Doug and Kyle but they’ll get there. I mean, you can get there. You know, and the other thing is, by the way, Kyle and Stanhope are very successful because they work super hard. It’s a flawed concept. But I just hate when I see some like 24 year old comic like, “I mostly just drink, man, because life fucks…” Get out of here.
AS: You’re just drinking because you’re a fuck up. Or because you’re a frat guy.
MK: You’re angst is fake and you’re alcoholism is fake but soon neither will be fake but you’re career will be non-existent.
AS: Soon you’ll need 5 beers before you get on stage.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Joe Rogan Experience #207: Tom Segura, Christina Pazsitzky
Joe Rogan: …like Ari (Shaffir) had a real good point. Like
he was saying that, you know, if you worked on a bit and you decided to work on
that bit for 5 or 10 years, you know, that all that energy you could’ve used on
that bit you could’ve abandoned it two years ago and then worked on a new bit
for another 2 years. And then you end up completely abandoned it and started
all new and all that creativity would’ve gone into something completely new and
different. It’s totally true, isn’t it?
So there’s a line you have to cross. Like when is it? Is it
a year for a new act? Is it 2 years?
Tom Segura: I think a year... If you start always turning over
stuff after a year you actually lose something. I think a year, you have to be…
if you’re like talking about just abandoning everything and doing stuff every
12 months. I mean just from experience of watching stand-up I feel it gets
better in that 16 to 24 month frame. Where it gets super tight, you know?
Joe Rogan Experience #207: Tom Segura, Christina Pazsitzky / aprox 2:18:00
Friday, June 22, 2012
The A.V. Club Toronto Interview: Ari Shaffir
Phil Brown: Was your comedy always so dark?
Ari Shaffir: Well, at first I wasn’t anywhere near that line. For the first while, you’re just doing an impression of a stand up comic. So I would do like Monica Lewinsky jokes and stuff like that. It was so bad. But over time everyone realizes their potential, and you start talking about the things you want to talk about. I was so religious for a while that I started making fun of it. I don’t care about things like race or religion, so I started mocking how everyone else cares about them.
PB: Do you think that to be a comedian who deals with your type of subject matter, you should be upsetting some of the audience?
AS: No, I don’t want to upset anybody. There are a few types of people who do those sorts of jokes. There are the people who are like, “Hey, I’m about to shock you or say something so disgusting that you won’t believe it!” Or there’s another type like Jimmy Norton, or the type of humor I do, where we don’t mean to be offensive to anyone, that’s just the way we think. Like, I’ve had thoughts about murdering a girl who I got pregnant while she’s deciding whether or not to have an abortion. I know that’s bad to do or even think about, but nevertheless those thoughts are there, so I’m going to share them with you. I think having children would be just horrible, and the worst punishment in life, and people get angry with me when I say that. I’m not trying to get you upset, I’m just expressing how I feel about it. I prefer that kind of nasty humor where the comics just can’t help it.
The A.V. Club Toronto Interview: Ari Shaffir / by Phil Brown / March 21, 2012
Ari Shaffir: Well, at first I wasn’t anywhere near that line. For the first while, you’re just doing an impression of a stand up comic. So I would do like Monica Lewinsky jokes and stuff like that. It was so bad. But over time everyone realizes their potential, and you start talking about the things you want to talk about. I was so religious for a while that I started making fun of it. I don’t care about things like race or religion, so I started mocking how everyone else cares about them.
PB: Do you think that to be a comedian who deals with your type of subject matter, you should be upsetting some of the audience?
AS: No, I don’t want to upset anybody. There are a few types of people who do those sorts of jokes. There are the people who are like, “Hey, I’m about to shock you or say something so disgusting that you won’t believe it!” Or there’s another type like Jimmy Norton, or the type of humor I do, where we don’t mean to be offensive to anyone, that’s just the way we think. Like, I’ve had thoughts about murdering a girl who I got pregnant while she’s deciding whether or not to have an abortion. I know that’s bad to do or even think about, but nevertheless those thoughts are there, so I’m going to share them with you. I think having children would be just horrible, and the worst punishment in life, and people get angry with me when I say that. I’m not trying to get you upset, I’m just expressing how I feel about it. I prefer that kind of nasty humor where the comics just can’t help it.
The A.V. Club Toronto Interview: Ari Shaffir / by Phil Brown / March 21, 2012
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